The article describes a semester-long project that draws on Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games" as a resource and over-arching theme for preservice teachers taking a content area literacy course. We examine how preservice teachers learn to connect written texts to content area (disciplinary) literacy and consider ways to prepare them for…

The use of graphic novels to engage students has increased steadily in recent years. School librarians and teachers throughout elementary, middle, and secondary schools are integrating graphic novels into English language arts learning and across the curriculum. The growing acceptance of graphic novels in teaching and learning activities is due in…

As the body of high quality young adult literature (YAL) continues to grow, what role might these texts play in professional development for educators? This article describes ways in which schools can develop book study programs that use this literature to promote meaningful dialogue and understanding of contemporary adolescent issues. Based on…

Since 2009, the author has been using an activity that she calls "book tasting" to help teens select books for independent reading assignments. While she is sure she is not the first to do this kind of activity, the term "book tasting" seems to appeal to the teens. Book tasting has been extremely successful in pairing up students with texts that…

Teenage magazine content, after decades, continues to complicate decision making in the communication of the young, impressionable girls who read them. Previous research has indicated that teenagers can be negatively influenced by the media, including teen magazines (e.g., Redcross, 2003; Milkie, 2002; Durham, 2008; Lamb & Brown, 2006). These…

This article explores ways to utilize students' interest in fantasy literature to support critical literacy. Focusing on Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games series (2008, 2009, 2010), the author addresses how elements of the trilogy relate to violent acts in our world, helping student understand that violence and brutality toward children is not…

How might team teaching, young adult novels, and zines work together to engage students in thinking about, writing about, and building community? Four researchers worked with three eighth-grade English teachers and one student teacher to find out. The four eighth-grade English teachers teach as a team, meeting formally at least once a week to plan…

This article explores how adolescents interact with multimodal texts across shifting contexts, including social, academic, and digital ones. The author considers the ability of teens to articulate the boundaries and fluidity of multiple discourse systems and to maneuver across and within them with ease. The author further explores pedagogical…

Though portrayals of bullying in children's books stretch back to Victorian public school stories, this article sees a new subgenre about bullying in young adult novels emerging in the post-Columbine years. Selected works by Jerry Spinelli, Walter Dean Myers, Jaime Adoff, Carol Plum-Ucci and Rita Williams-Garcia are examined, although the article…

A mixed method study explored a theoretical model that employed, combined, and added to the theories of self-determination, the reading engagement perspective, and the four-phase model of interest to motivate adolescent struggling readers to read for pleasure. The model adds to the existing body of research because it specifies an instructional…

In high school English classrooms where English language learners may be at risk of academic failure, Culturally Responsive Teaching can help educators build an inclusive community in which all students can improve their literacy skills.

This paper explores educating for democratic citizenship with a focus on the intersection between reading and values, specifically the nurturing of social responsibility. Using a pre-designed framework for teaching for social responsibility, excerpts from a young adult historical fiction series are used to consider learning possibilities in the…

This article presents an interview with Libba Bray, author of "Going Bovine," the winner of the Michael L. Printz Award as the year's most distinguished title for teens. Since the publication of "A Great and Terrible Beauty" in 2003, Bray has captured the imaginations and loyalties of a host of teen readers. This initial entry in a trilogy--which…

This article presents an interview with Phillip Hoose, National Book Award winner for young people's literature for his book "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice," a true story of a teen who refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Hoose is no stranger to the world of literary honors. His…

2010 marks the fifth year the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) has selected an honor list of international books. Once again, titles on the list crisscross the globe. They have been published in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, India, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. This…